Japan – The Birthplace of Nishikigoi, and the Land of the Rising Sun.

Japan is an island country in East Asia, it is situated in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west side by the Sea of Japan.

Japan is the eleventh most populated country in the world, with around three quarters of the countries terrain being mountainous, concentrating its population of around 125 million on narrow coastal plains.

Japan is divided into 47 administrative Prefectures, these can be seen on the map opposite.

Our focus is the Niigata Prefecture, and the village of Yamakoshi.

Niigata Prefecture is in the Chubu region of Honshu, of Japan, and is a major production area of rice, the staple diet of the Japanese people, and I must say I have sampled this rice many times on my visits to Japan, Niigata rice at a superb curry house on the Shinano River.

Yamakoshi village is located in the Chuestu region, and it again is a mountainous area, farmers there in the early days carved rice paddies into the mountains, and as food was sparse due to the tremendously heavy snowfall over the Winter, they bred Magoi fish as a food source, and supplementary to their diet of rice. With snowfall is excess of four metres, this village until the 1970’s was cut off from the outside world, and they had to fend for themselves.

As time moved on the Magoi fish they produced started showing mutations of colour, and the coloured carp was born, and these coloured carp formed the origins of the Nishikigoi we see today.

Read More About Below – about this amazing country and what it has to offer us the Koi Keepers.